The Quest for Justice in Cambodia: Power, Politics, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

The trial of the four surviving senior members of the Khmer Rouge leadership was a difficult undertaking from the start. The elderly defendants were in frail health. Illness and death reduced the number of the accused to just two. The Cambodian government, led by Hun Sen, was not eager to have any trials at all, and was determined that the trial not implicate officials who were now allied with the ruling regime. The conflicting agendas of the international judges on the hybrid court and the Cambodian government often left the court mired in disputes. The Cambodian genocide tribunal illustrates the political complexities and challenges involved in pursuing charges against perpetrators, especially when the trial is held decades after the genocide occurred